How easy will this site be to beat?

[aidan1980]

Hi all. After a lot of learning and hard work etc etc I have now managed to get to 2nd spot for 'bookies'. Looking at the site that is number 1 do you think they would be easy to challange or too hard and i'd be best channelling my efforts elsewhere?

thanks

 

[webdevuk]

tip : install mozilla firefox , and download the SEO tool bar , it will show you how powerful the website is , you can then compare that to yours so you can see what you need to do

 

[SLF]

I dont see any reason why you cant knock them off the top spot at the rate you are going.

Out of interest, how many visits do you get from being at No. 2? With over 300 searches a month for the keyword bookies, google predicts No. 1 spot gets an estimated 130 click throughs so it will be interesting to see what you are getting.

 

[aidan1980]

to be honest mate it really do depend on what sporting events are on that day, some days i get 1-5 hits then others can have around 10-15, but then days like yesterday i got a lot more

I dont see any reason why you cant knock them off the top spot at the rate you are going.

Out of interest, how many visits do you get from being at No. 2? With over 300 searches a month for the keyword bookies, google predicts No. 1 spot gets an estimated 130 click throughs so it will be interesting to see what you are getting.

 

[webdevuk]

how much do you make off this site per month on average ?

 

[SLF]

well that's not great figures for a keyword with a good number of monthly searches, id have thought you would be getting around 50 visits a day at least from that keyword alone

 

[aidan1980]

how much do you make off this site per month on average ?

don't want to say on here

 

[webdevuk]

Ok np , i understand , i should have really asked :-s . ..

 

[aidan1980]

well that's not great figures for a keyword with a good number of monthly searches, id have thought you would be getting around 50 visits a day at least from that keyword alone

since 24th may I have had 90 visits from google for it according to their stats

 

[SLF]

I find hosting stats to be more accurate than Google analytics oddly enough.

90 isnt much at all, very strange

 

Hi all. After a lot of learning and hard work etc etc I have now managed to get to 2nd spot for 'bookies'. Looking at the site that is number 1 do you think they would be easy to challange or too hard and i'd be best channelling my efforts elsewhere?

thanks

With such a low visitor level for that keyword .I would be more interested in finding a more productive phrase than knocking that site off the top spot.

Earl

 

[PrettyPaws]

First off well done, it's not an easy keyword to rank for. My hat is off to you

That said, I can't believe what an awful traffic volume you're getting! There must be a better phrase for you?

 

[SFD]

I find hosting stats to be more accurate than Google analytics oddly enough.

90 isnt much at all, very strange

If google is estimating 300 searches per month with the top site getting 130 hits per month, why is 90 so bad?

I don't understand. It doesn't seem that low, relative to the search volume.:|

 

[aidan1980]

If google is estimating 300 searches per month with the top site getting 130 hits per month, why is 90 so bad?

I don't understand. It doesn't seem that low, relative to the search volume.:|

Google adwords suggests thousands of searches per month:|

 

[SFD]

I get quite strange results for bookies, I get 3 results then a:

----------------------------------------------------------

See results for: ladbrokes

Results etc
----------------------------------------------------------

which tends to draw attention. Could this be anything to do with it?

 

[webdevuk]

ladbrokes is one very important site to have an overide on bookies !!

 

[aidan1980]

I get that aswell but you have to scroll down to see it so god knows:|. I suppose the only way to really find out is get to number 1

I get quite strange results for bookies, I get 3 results then a:

----------------------------------------------------------

See results for: ladbrokes

Results etc
----------------------------------------------------------

which tends to draw attention. Could this be anything to do with it?

 

[eventdomain]

Google adwords suggests thousands of searches per month:|

but that 1000's of searches is shared between probably 100 sites.

 

[aidan1980]

but that 1000's of searches is shared between probably 100 sites.

how do you mean, if you are talking people searching past page 1, i doubt it

 

[crossdaz]

but that 1000's of searches is shared between probably 100 sites.

18,000 exacts a month and 50,000 broad match.
Even if every vistor had just searched bookies then this equates to around 7,000 vistors for #1.

What #2 gets is debatable - maybe half of that?

Not bad either way - depends how those visitors convert to cash I guess?

 

[SLF]

sorry guys, I meant per DAY not per month! Thats why I meant 90 was low.

 

[eventdomain]

how do you mean, if you are talking people searching past page 1, i doubt it

Very strong possibilty that other 'betting' portals are beyond the first 4 pages of the serps, and that they've been established for years:

I just found 1 'betting offers' website that's on page 10 of Google http://www.freebets.co.uk/ and I think there are many more just like it.

You've obviously chosen a popular keyword as many gambling sites come up for that keyword. Results 21 - 30 of about 1,700,000 for gambling offers.

My point is there are websites more established, more popular than yours and likely have a strong following and very difficult to beat. Serps mean nothing as other sites probably beat you on traffic and profit, and that's what counts. The time people waste on pursuing the serps is crazy, when it's profit they should be going after....

Don't forget Google will drop you down anytime it wants to, and that's what is so funny about this. Google was created to draw people in and get them hooked - to force them to spend on Adwords. That is their main goal and why they shuffle the serps in the first place.

Being No2 in the serps means nothing, as all the other sites could well be on million pound turnovers and only at No. 300 position. Look at the way the G toolbar is worshipped and fought over, okay the serps are a bit different, but the addiction is still pointless bcos you won't ever stay in that No.1 spot.

 

[aidan1980]

thanks for giving a major competitor of mine a free back link (wouldn't mind you altering that).

The point I was getting at is my choice was for the exact phrase 'bookies', not any other betting terms. As for serps, don't make me laugh pal. your saying is shouldn't try and get to position 1 for anything, buts thats where the customers come from. By the way doin a fair bit of off line advertisments aswell so getting a varied amount of customers. Trying to increase it by getting more traffic is not a bad thing

 

[eventdomain]

thanks for giving a major competitor of mine a free back link (wouldn't mind you altering that).

Wasn't my intention, and you have more to worry about that just one competitor - like you have maybe another 1000 others all copying your idea....

major competitor of mine

You've just answered why it's so tough to get to No1 spot

As for serps, don't make me laugh pal. your saying is shouldn't try and get to position 1 for anything

Oh, havent people realised yet that choosing easy keywords to rank for doesn't work.

The decent/top keywords are already taken and owned by the big-name companies. And using easy keywords gets no traffic anyway, even then there are just 10 spots on Google and only 1 company can hold the first postition.

So we have thousands of companies fighting to own 1 single top spot (No 1 in serps), it's impossible! Simple maths will tell you that it always fails, yet so many are convinced they will be victorious against multi-million pound corporates that hire teams of SEO experts

 

[aidan1980]

Wasn't my intention, and you have more to worry about that just one competitor - like you have maybe another 1000 others all copying your idea....



You've just answered why it's so tough to get to No1 spot




Oh, havent people realised yet that choosing easy keywords to rank for doesn't work.

The decent/top keywords are already taken and owned by the big-name companies. And using easy keywords gets no traffic anyway, even then there are just 10 spots on Google and only 1 company can hold the first postition.

So we have thousands of companies fighting to own 1 single top spot (No 1 in serps), it's impossible! Simple maths will tell you that it always fails, yet so many are convinced they will be victorious against multi-million pound corporates that hire teams of SEO experts

Don't want to get in a petty arguement but, and its a big but. We aren't all chasing 1 search term. I know my field like the back of my hand and there aren't many 'big companies' competing. The likes of coral and ladbrokes don't go into our target markets believe it or not. Plenty of scope for variation

 

[eventdomain]

You can say what you want, but that won't change a thing bcos it's not about how well you know your industry - its about what searchers key into search engines to find you.

The word 'bookies' is a popular word - and all popular things are difficult to rank for, but more difficult to remain in that No.2 spot.

See this word 'bookies' - now that says to me that you're a online bookmakers, and not an offers website, so right away the user will arrive and click away. By using that word, you suggested one thing, only to offer something else, and will only confuse searchers.

So it may get you ranked highly, might get you some nice clicks, but you haven't been precise enough when SEOing your website, and that's key I'm afraid. No point in doing all this website sales stuff, if you give out the wrong perception via the search engines.

Misuse of keywords is why we have so much negative searches on the web, its hard enough searching sometimes without adding to the problem.

 

[webgeek]

In any case, if you're site B, trying to beat site A, first look at the ground they've got staked by:
1) Use something like Yahoo site explorer and see how many indexed pages and inbound links they've got (compared to you)
2) Run both sites through backlinkwatch and see roughly what % of their IBL's are keyword targeted vs yours
3) Do some quick math and subtract yours from theirs to find out how much ground you've got to cover

Yeah, yeah, naysayers will claim there's issues like quality of the links, thematic elements of linking sites, yata, yata. Well, if you've got weeks instead of minutes to spend creating strategy documents, then by all means, please dig deeeep.

Otherwise, combine the above information with research on the Google keyword tool to see what else there is out there. It's often better to be #1 for 3-10 other terms than #1 for the 1 short-tailed prize. Targeted traffic converts better and is less susceptible to a Google-whacking.

My 2 second analysis of your situation. Taking the #1 spot will require an amazing amount of content and promotions...

 

[eventdomain]

Taking the #1 spot will require an amazing amount of content and promotions...

Exactly, and I don't think small/medium company websites have the time to do this properly. Building a ton of content is hard, SEOing it all will cost a bomb, and anyone reaching No1 spot for anything will just be pushed down the ranks by Google or beaten by the large corporates.

I guess SEO is a short-term thing, and the best one can hope for, is a short-term gain before a Google reshuffle takes place. Other search engines are easier to SEO for, and thats where our time needs to be invested.

 

[The Knowledge]

I'm not a SEO mega expert or anything, but having said that it's a field with many varying opinions anyway.

I think you've done really well so far, and it's now a case of constant analysis and tweaking. You have around 6,500 backlinks at the moment, and the site on the number one position has around 25,500, which would indicate that they have been established for longer.

There also seems to be more content on their site, which is a major factor with the SE's IMHO.

Perhaps you could add some content? That said, you would have to be careful with that as I think the design and layout of your site is eye catching and easy to navigate around. The site at number one is somewhat hard on the eyes and I'm quick to exit that.

I'm an Arber by the way so maybe we could talk at some point during the future...

 

I get that aswell but you have to scroll down to see it so god knows:|. I suppose the only way to really find out is get to number 1

Or mention what a great bookies Ladbrokes are a few hundred times on your site.

Earl

 

[ruby.mein]

Its a matter of hard work.. You get to your desired ranking if your going to continue getting quality of back links..

 

[sksservices]

I find the best strategy is to start looking at ranking for other similar search terms such as 'best odds bookies' etc. (by the way that was just an example, i havent looked up wether that ever gets searched for!)

You will find that by ranking for other long tail keywords, your main search term will improve as well.